Ignis Fatuus
by Jacy Arienh Sagira
Summary: What if the boy-who-lived disappeared as well as the son of the wealthiest known death-eater? And what if when they found the infamous Harry Potter he refused to grasp his destiny and fight? Will anyone be able to change his mind or will the world be lost


Disclaimer: The characters in this story are not my own. They are characters created by J. K. Rowling, no copyright infringement intended. I have only borrowed them to use to my own twisted pleasures.

Prologue:

The Wizarding world was in ruins.

Voldemort had returned, Sirius Black, a known murderer, had been exonerated then killed himself, and now Harry Potter, their only savior and hope, had disappeared.

His sixth year, according to Hogwarts staff, was scheduled to start just like everyone else's, but when the Hogwarts Express rolled into the station from platform 9 ¾, Harry was nowhere to be found.

His friends were frantic. No one, not even Ron or Hermione knew his whereabouts. Dumbledore, himself, was clueless, but took this new turn of events in a very calm way.

The only person in the whole of Hogwarts who neither cared nor wanted to know where the boy who lived was, was his arch enemy. Draco Malfoy.

Then again the young Malfoy heir had more worrisome matters on his mind being as his Deatheater Initiation Trials were the very night Harry's disappearance was announced.

Stealing away from the castle had been no picnic that night, but Draco had used every skill he had to his advantage. Making it just in time to his designated apparition point.

When he had finally met up with his father and received the Dark Lord's orders, the butterflies in his stomach were doing cartwheels.

"Son, tonight you become a man. Tonight you must uphold the Malfoy name. The family's honor is in your hands." Lucius put his hand on his son's shoulder in the only show of emotion he had ever shown in public. "I have faith in you, Son." And with that, the two platinum haired wizards apparated.

It all happened in a rush. One minute Draco was standing nest to his father, shouting curse after dark curse at screaming muggles, then out of no where a sharp pain had rooted itself into his shoulder.

Draco fell, collapsing on the hillside, and rolled down the embankment. Darkness came up on him fast, his consciousness slipping quickly into the void surrounding him.

When Draco came to he felt like he'd been run over by the Hogwart's Express.

His left arm was covered in material that was so hard he could pound it against the table and not feel a thing. His stomach was also wrapped, but in soft white cloth. A bloodied patch was on his forehead, directly along his hair line. And when he moved to get up, a sharp pain erupted in his chest.

Draco sucked in air, gasping for breathe, which only made it worse. Where was the medi-witch, what was all this stuff on him? His father was definitely going to hear about this!

Laying back down, taking in smaller, less painful breaths, Draco realized why there was no medi-witch. This was not St. Mungos or anything like it.

He was in someone's bedroom, and definitely not his own. Or at least he never remembered putting a handmade, down home country quilt on his bed or having walls not made of stone.

No, definitely not his room.

Draco was extremely confused by the fact that he didn't know where he was. Or more or less the fact there was no one there to tell him why he was there. And looking at the textured ceiling was becoming extremely boring.

Another twenty minutes later and he felt like he was going to go crazy. If someone didn't come through that wooden door soon he was going to scream. Luckily for him, someone did walk through the door.

A woman in her mid-forties with sandy brown hair and dark brown eyes silently opened the door, and realizing he wasn't asleep bustled right on in. She flashed him a friendly smile and said, "Took a nasty fall down that embankment, I guess. Runnin' from those…those…whatever those people were."

When Draco didn't answer she just kept on talking. "Good thing Seth was here." She shook her head as if she was remembering something then started putting up towels and other linens from a basket in her hands inside a closet.

When she turned back around she studied the blonde haired boy for a minute. "Feel up to eatin' somethin'?" Draco nodded, feeling his stomach growl. "Aight, I'll get Seth to bring it up."

She walked out the door, then quickly stuck her head back in. "What's your name, son?"

"Draco," he rasped out.

"Well I'm Gale Thomas."

Now even more confused Draco turned over, closed his eyes, quickly dosing off as he waited for Seth, whoever that was, to bring up something for him to eat.

Draco woke up with a start when the door squeaked open.

A boy around his age, maybe a year or two older, walked in carrying a tray with soup and a glass of water on it.

He waited for Draco to sit up before he sat the tray up for him to eat.

"Thank-you"

"Yeah."

There was an awkward silence, one that lasted a few minutes, each just sort of staring and trying to think of something to say. Draco studying the other boy, sizing him up. The hazel eyes, the longer spiked brown hair with red and blonde streaks, the earrings, even the baggy pants and blue tank top. The boy didn't have the appearance of someone he would talk to, but familiar none the less.

"Seth, right?"

"Yeah." Another silence followed up, this time interrupted by Seth. "Look, If you need anything else, just call, I got work to do."

----- 3 wk.s later ---

" The fantasy and Sci-Fi books go on the third row from the back and are in alphabetical order by last name of author." Seth pointed to the back of the bookstore.

Draco looked to the back of the store and grimaced. He had been carrying boxes of books all day, and , although better, his broken ribs weren't yet fully healed.

"This is our last box and then we'll be done for the day." The other boy's Australian accent mixed with the Southern dialect made things harder for Draco to understand, but even so, Seth always got what he needed to say out.

At first it had been unnerving for the blonde wizard to have someone actually hold a conversation without either groveling like his friends or outright trashing him like his father, but here he was an equal. Not completely out of the picture but not the main attraction all the time. He was even doing things he had never thought possible of himself.

For once in his life he was making his decisions and taking responsibility, he had a job, he had his own place (well sort of), and he wasn't whining about everything (at least not to anyone but himself). So far everything the muggles had thrown at him he had taken without comment. Right down to the clothes they had given him.

Draco lugged the last box to the row Seth had pointed to and began organizing the books.

"Hey Seth, where are we going tonight?" Draco asked the dark haired boy when he came back to make sure everything was in the right place.

"We aren't going anywhere tonight. I have something I have to do tonight," Seth answered while checking the shelves, " But tomorrow we have the day off, so maybe we can go see a movie or something."

Draco nodded his head. He didn't know what a bloody movie was but he did know he was going to something besides sit in his room while the other boy went on a date or whatever.

Seth leaned down to switch one stack of books around, then stood back up just as a customer walked in.

"I'll take this one and when I'm done, I'll meet you upstairs. I don't have to go till about 9:00."

"See you later then." Draco said as he turned and made his way up the back staircase to his room. It was definitely time to take a shower.

---

The bathroom was bigger than Draco would have expected, but then again Ms. Thomas had received a great deal of money when her husband died in a car crash. Enough money to buy her new house and start a book store, then rent out the two floors above the bookstore to Seth and himself for running the store while still paying them.

She was an extremely generous person, but that made Draco all the more upset around her. He didn't like owing people anything. It gave them a sort of control. That was how he had ended up working for her and living above the bookstore. He had insisted on paying her back for the care she had given him by working off his debt, and it had taken a good hour and a half to get the woman to agree. In the end, she still had the upper hand on him.

Draco turned on the water and stepped into the shower, letting it blast over him. After all the boxes he had moved that day, the hot water felt good on his stomach, stinging only slightly on the unhealed gash across the upper left part of his chest and the smaller gash running directly along his hairline.

Both would leave scars, he knew, but there was nothing he could do about that now. His wand was broken beyond repair, and he had no way of reaching his father yet. He needed to find someone who knew about magic, but as of right then he was lost in a sea of muggles.

The blonde haired wizard scrubbed at his pale skin, cleaning the sweat and dirt that had accumulated there over the day, taking special care with his wounds, and cleaned his hair with only a little wincing.

He stood under the water, his hands against the shower back until the water ran cold, then turned it off, and got out. Steam filled the bathroom, blocking out the mirror and racing from the room when he opened the door.

His selection of clothes was nothing he was proud of, mostly things given to him by Seth or Ms. Thomas, and a few that he had bought with his first paycheck. But at least they were comfortable.

Draco searched for something he could wear when he went out and finally decided on a pair of dark blue jeans and a black tee shirt, both of which he thought were a little to tight for his taste but would have to do. If his father had seen him wearing it out in public, though, he would be boiled alive and fed to some hungry Thestrels.

It was only around five in the afternoon when the blonde stepped out of his apartment and made his way down to the street, but the town was still moving small as it was.

Cars riding into the historic downtown from the larger cities nearby, and the teenagers all made their way to the two of three hot spots for a Friday night. It was either the Main Street Cinema where you could see one of two movies, both of which were new releases.

Or it was Safe Haven, a club where the younger crowd went to hang out. The club sported pool tables, a few airhockey tables, and a bar for those that were old enough to drink, although it was said that if you could get the bartender to down a few shots, it didn't matter what age you were.

Draco thought about the cinema to see what all the hype was about these movie things, but decided he could wait another night, so he turned the opposite way towards the club.

Long before he got there he heard the music thumping inside and the sound of laughter. The pooltables were all full and both of the air hockey tables were being used, but there were a few empty tables left.

Draco took one towards the back of the room, not wanting to draw attention to himself for a little. Especially from the brunette making googly eyes at the bar. She looked hammered.

After a few minutes, a young red headed waitress came by and asked him if he wanted anything from the bar or grill. He ordered a drink and then leaned back into the darkness of his corner as he waited.

The sound of the pool balls seemed distant against the heavy clamor of the music, but it gave the blonde haired wizard something to focus on.

He was only here to give him something to do besides sit around his empty apartment waiting to get tired enough to sleep.

There were a lot of couples dancing in the middle of the floor. Well you could call what they were doing dancing if you wanted to, but to Draco it seemed like they were fucking with their clothes on. It was quite erotic what with the girl grinding her hips into the boy's groin in time with the music, while she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Oddly enough he recognized one of the people dancing as Seth. Although the young Australian seemed to be doing more than just dancing, he looked to be tonguing his dance partner instead of actually dancing.

Draco watched for a little while as the other boy alternated between kissing and dancing until he finished his drink. The young wizard was at a loss. He didn't know how he was going to get back to the wizarding world or even how to contact someone how knew about it.

Had he a wand the problem would be solved quite easily, but Ms. Thomas had thrown that "old stick" away without realizing how important it really was.

His only choice was to do some kind of magic to get the American wizarding ministry's attention to tell them his problem. He even had his alibi down.

He was on vacation with his parents, and somehow got separated while on a muggle tour. In the process he had lost his wand, his only resource was the emotional outburst of magic created by a stressful situation to get their attention.

He sincerely hoped that the American's laws were the same as Britain's on restricting magic.

The sound of angry shouts broke Draco's concentration, and he looked up to find it's source. Apparently Seth had been snogging the wrong girl, or at least someone else's girl because now he was dodging pool balls with the speed of a professional quiddich player who was used to dodging bludgers. The other boy even caught one of the recklessly aimed balls and hurled it back with precision.

With a horrible thunking sound the ball slammed into its target momentarily impeding it from throwing anything else. Draco smirked. It was a good shot but he knew it would only make the muggle monstrosity even more pissed off.

Without knowing why he bothered, Draco slid out of his booth and sauntered over to the aid of his co-worker.

"Need a little help?" he asked as he crouched down behind the make shift wall of overturned tables beside Seth.

The other boy's hazel eyes widened as if surprised by his offer. "Umm sure."

"Aright let's get out of here, I'll take him from the right and you take him from the left…"Draco started to lay out his plan, but before he could even finish, Seth was already going.

The muggle they were fighting was taken totally by surprise as Seth ran full speed at him, dropping last minute to his back and using his momentum to slid between the monsters legs, kicking him in the groin as he did so.

To Draco it was a perfect Wronski Feint in motion, almost making him wonder if he muggle boy really was a muggle. And something about Seth's move really did seem familiar. But there was no time to sit thinking about that, seeing that the angry muggle was going to turn around before Seth could get off his back, Draco jumped from his position and hurtled towards his target slamming his fist into the boy's face, knocking him cold.

Draco pulled Seth from the floor and both of them headed for the door.

"Hope she was worth it." The blonde wizard said when they finally got back to their building.

Seth merely laughed, "Yeah well, I guess I owe you one." And extended his hand towards Draco.

Draco looked at the hand for a moment, he had never excepted an offer of friendship before. And he never imagined that the first time he did it would be from a muggle. But he took the hand extended to him anyway. "It was nothing." He murmered.

"Well see ya, I'm going bed," seth said with a smile and climbed the stairs to his room.

Draco heard the door open and close, but he stood rooted to the spot for a moment longer. Looking at his hand he thought about what had just occurred, not sure if it was real or not. Then with a sigh he trotted up the stairs to his room as well.

Completely unaware that two streets over a small group of robed aurors casually made their way down the street, checking for signs of the boy-who-lived, vainly searching.

------


End file.
